ABSTRACT
Malaysia appears to have shaken off the yoke of colonialism much more effectively than Bangladesh. Contrary to colour-supplement conception, most of the Third World has vast cities, concrete buildings and busy roads, but they tend to look ineffably shabby, permanently incomplete, yet always over-populated and polluted before they had a chance. Kuala Lumpur is quite unlike that. It is a confident, modern city whose elegant white towers surrounded by greenery and clean streets put London to shame. It is a joy to enter, driving along the fast freeway, cresting the hill on the way from the airport to see the city neatly framed through the triumphal arch that straddles the road, the modern Moghul styling quietly reminding you that this is a Muslim state. But it is not long before you realize that this is a carefully designed piece of staging, and that all is not as it seems behind the concrete curtains. In the heart of the city, even as you admire the intricate stone tracery that clads one of the buildings, the taxi driver begins to grumble at the inordinate cost which had to be borne out of public funds. Not much further on, there is a long painted hoarding, of the kind that normally hides a building site. This one hides a site full of buildings – a slum, which the city council cannot rehouse and would prefer visitors not to see. It rather spoils the picture.
